Brave
by My Vantilene
Summary: She had no intention of marrying Gaston. Rumbelle AU.


She had wanted to fight in the Ogre wars.

It was an impossible dream, but it was hers all the same. And she acted on it, far more than her father would deem appropriate for just a passing phase. She would always get Gaston to spar against her, teach her how to wield a sword properly against her father's wishes. He kept it a secret. He liked her, but only for small, superficial reasons, so those feeling were never reciprocated, despite what she had led him to believe. But he would never tell. And she trusted him to uphold his end of the bargain.

But his one mistake was trusting her to uphold hers.

He should've seen it coming. Her reason for learning the ways of the sword, her blinding bravery in the face of everything that kept her back, she was a free spirit, and maybe he could've really seen it coming if he had known her better. She had no intention of marrying him. She had every intention of sneaking out of the castle at the crack of dawn and fitting into the swarm of new recruits heading off to war.

She was missing five hours before anyone thought to look for her. A five hour head start was all she needed.

* * *

The camp was something of a miracle to her. It wasn't fancy, and all in all there was nothing really special to note, but there was just something about it she liked. Whether it be the way she could look up and see stars, the way the men joked around happily, as if some tight-knit family, the cool breeze churning gently around her disguise, she couldn't exactly say.

No one talked to her though. They tried, but if she had said anything back, she was afraid her voice would shatter her façade like the fragile glass it was made out of. Though the silence was terribly lonely, at least she could hear the other soldiers making merry before the training they were to start tomorrow. It was something she had never heard at home. The silence there was terribly lonely as well, so she found her new surroundings all the more preferable.

She sat off to the side, watching them drink and talk around the fire. But she couldn't, not until she had proved herself on the battlefield, of course. They would have no choice but to accept her into their numbers once they saw how good she was with a sword.

"Hey." with a speedy _thump _a man came to sit next to her, "You okay, solider?"

She dragged her shawl around her shoulders, pushing it up so he couldn't get a very good look at her face, and let out the deepest _hmm_she could.

"You — you don't have to talk if you don't want to. Sorry to bother you. I'm just… I'm just scared I guess, to go down there and join 'em. You understand, right?"

She did understand. More than anyone, she understood.

"Ah. I see. I mean, I get it. I'll leave you alone now, sorry again." He started to stand, but something in her darted out from whatever chasm it resided at the pitch black bottom of and reached for his arm.

He gave a startled yelp and flinched, probably thinking she was going to hit him. He kept his eyes glued shut in anticipation, but when nothing happened, he opened them one at a time until he was staring at her.

She stared at him too, surprised she had done something so… well, so bold. That was a nice way to put it.

He was an interesting man. Fear seemed to be etched into his eyes, even when his expression was completely blank, a light, underlying tone to the dark brown of his irises.

He shifted them from her, to her grip on him, and back again.

"Um." He said.

"Um." She said, and quickly let go, dropping his arm as if she had been burned.

He stood there, confused for a moment, indecisive in what to do, before his eyes settled on her again. The corners of his lips tugged slightly upward and something new entered his eyes.

"You're a woman, aren't you?"

She jumped to her feet and dragged him behind one of the supply cars, out of the other soldier's ear shot.

She pushed him against the side, elbow pressed up against his neck, a wild frenzy igniting her dangerously blue eyes.

Everything she had worked for, everything she had dreamed about, everything she had sacrificed would all be in vain just because this one man was too observant for his own good.

"You tell anyone," she breathed, "And I'll string you up by your teeth."

The threat to his person was very real, he could tell, but despite being an easily frightened man, he found himself still smiling that warm, amused smile.

"You don't think I'll do it just because I'm a woman? Well, you'll find there are a lot of things I'm willing to do that men like yourself would never even dream to."

"Oh, oh, no. I know you'll do it. But you won't have to."

"You're not going to tell anyone?" she asked, suspicious.

"Of course not, why would I? It's not like I have much of anyone to tell, right?"

She released her grip on his throat and he brushed himself off.

"What's your name, soldier?"

"Rumplestiltskin, m'am. What's yours?"

"Belle."

"Well, then, I guess I'll have to call you something else, right? If you don't want anyone here to know you're a woman. How about Bellefore? Baelfire? It sounds similar, I guess."

"Baelfire sounds wonderful." She smiled, "But you can call me Belle now if you want."

He smiled.


End file.
